Virginia Gwendolen Thorley, a leading figure in the breastfeeding movement in Australia, was born on 16 August 1942 and grew up in Townsville, Queensland. Her interest in breastfeeding began with the birth of her first baby in 1965. She has been active in the movement since 1966 after qualifying as a breastfeeding counsellor with the Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia (now the Australian Breastfeeding Association) and the La Leche League International (LLL). Recognised as Queensland's first breastfeeding counsellor, she was among the inaugural cohort to certify with the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBCLC) in 1985. Thorley studied at the University of Queensland, earning a Bachelor of Arts (1979), Diploma in Education (1988), Master of Arts (2000), and PhD (2007). Her MA and PhD theses were cultural histories of the history of medicine. In 2008, she became one of the first Fellows of the International Lactation Consultant Association (FILCA). She is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. She has published several books, including Successful breastfeeding (1974) and Feeding your baby and child : a guide for Australian parents (1992), originally published under the title Feeding your baby and young child in Australia.